Yesterday Melbourne was host to yet another Trampoline unconference. This time around, I was taking a break from organising (something else had demanded a lot of my time lately), but that gave me a bit more time to craft together a session I’ve been keen to run for some time: a discussion on diversity.

While nothing is as good as being there on the day and partaking in the dialogue, here’s what I covered (you’ll just have to imagine all the insightful conversation you missed from others who were in the room).

Firstly, it’s worth acknowledging that I am a straight, white guy – thus in some ways it feels like I’m not the best source to discuss things related to diversity, given how dominant my ‘type’ is. I do feel like I’ve learnt a lot over the past few years, and so this is me sharing what I’ve learnt, and how I’ve learnt, but also noting that I may get things wrong, and feedback and corrections are very much welcome.

The target audience for this talk was other straight, white guys – I hope they can connect with my own evolution of thinking. I’m sure plenty of what I have to say is obvious (and possibly condescending – but I hope not!) to those who don’t have as much inherent privilege in Australian society.

At the recent Link Festival, Angus Hervey noted that he was a young white guy, but didn’t want to become a old white guy – or at least, the kind of old white guy that seems to be causing so many problems in our world – and this strongly resonated with me. Our world is wonderfully diverse, and yet our leaders, our media, our world views (especially those of us who fit the dominant type) are not. How do we change that?

What?

And as for what I mean when talking about diversity: a plurality of everything: gender and gender identity, sexuality, race, religion, age, financial situations, physical ability, political views, and so on. I’m not going to even try to provide a definitive list, because there’s just too many things to take into account, and I’m sure I’ll forget some.

I’ve noted this before in other talks I’ve given, but bringing together a wide group of people together and getting them to think in the same way is not diversity. The goal is not just diversity of peoples, but diversity of thought and culture.

Why?

If you’re not sold on why diversity matters, well, here’s just a few reasons, from different viewpoints – pick one that works for you:

Diverse teams are more likely to be successful (there are studies that back this up).

Nature is a great example of diverse environments/systems being more resilient, and imitating this to have more resilient societies is a good thing.

Diverse groups are more interesting! You end up with a wider mix of ideas, which can lead to more innovation and wisdom (which is part of our goal with Trampoline).

I like a culture where no one gets left behind, and where everyone matters. Something that strives for fairness and equality – and I think this is only possible in a diverse society.

How?

If you only get one thing from this post, it should be this: practice empathy and compassion as much as possible, towards as many people as possible.

I will shut up now, there are better, smarter people than me. But I will always be #yoursinthestruggle. Listening is for winners.

And listen, because your path through life is different to others – be wary of your own assumptions, and be open to hearing others’ perspectives. Keep in mind that society usually serves the dominant ‘type’ – which, certainly in Australia, is straight, white men. You may initially struggle to understand others’ perspectives because of this – we can unconsciously surround ourselves with friends and media that reinforce our presumptions, which makes breaking out of that filter bubble all the more difficult.

This growth in awareness helped me become more aware of the privilege I have, and the power implicit in that privilege. From there, I can then aim to drive that power in ways that can help others. Of course, this is (always) a work in progress, as I’m always learning.

The listening and learning is grounded in a lack of ego – a recognition that it’s not about you. White guys: don’t get carried away with your own righteousness and announce that you’re fixing the system, that you’re an ally. Go and read André Arko’s wise words, and then promote the voices of those who would otherwise not be heard. You already have the privilege and influence – try to share that around.

Another thing to keep in mind is the intersectional nature of discrimination/diversity. Putting people in boxes – whether that’s white box, eg: white, or many, eg: white, straight, male – will not capture a fair representation of who they are, nor will it provide a clear picture of the discrimination they may face. The impact of discrimination and oppression is deep and complex, and proposed actions to deal with this need to understand that complexity as much as possible.

When it comes to people speaking about discrimination they suffer from, they may be angry, and their perspectives may not be calm, and you may not think they’re rational – but you should listen and seek to understand anyway. Their anger is justified, and they shouldn’t have to sugarcoat their perspective just to please you (especially if you’re in a comfortable position of privilege).

My journey has come from a position of blissful ignorance, and once upon a time I would have been in favour of meritocracy. That is most definitely not the case any more – sure, meritocracy could be considered, but only in a society where everyone is on equal footing, and we’ve all had the same opportunities, and no one has any conscious or unconscious biases. Impossible.

And because of this, I think there is value in things like affirmative action and diversity quotas. They’re just one small step, mind you.

I’m going to finish this section the same way I started: please, ground all of this in empathy and compassion.

Practical Examples

I have a habit of running events, and more and more I’m trying to have these events reflect my growing awareness. Through this, one of my goals – particularly in the Melbourne Ruby community, where Mario Visic and I just wrapped up our two year stint of running monthly events – has been to create welcoming, friendly, safe spaces.

Granted, you can’t please everyone, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. Good satire (and good comedy) should be directed at those higher up on society’s ladder, but good communities should aim at the other end of the spectrum: assist those who don’t get the same opportunities and implicit support as the majority.

This perhaps isn’t so much about diversity in a direct sense, but I believe it can help: when you’re dealing with groups of people, particularly at semi-organised social events, be wary of cliques. Newcomers can find established groups daunting as it is, and cliques just reinforce that. Don’t be afraid to ask those in cliques to make an extra effort to talk to those who don’t have anyone to talk to.

Certainly, at RubyConf AU (which happened last month, and I was one of the organisers) I think this is one area where we can clearly improve. I’d love to see official greeters and social connectors, as a role for volunteers and other regulars: if you spot someone who looks a little lost or lonely, go and have a chat with them.

Also, strive to make events as accessible as possible – and this covers things from dietary requirements, to wheelchair access, to hearing assistance, to facilitating child-care. Don’t be afraid to make a statement on this too (something that we learnt from the eurucamp organisers).

Speaking of statements, I think it’s important to show people that you take creating a safe space seriously. Codes of conduct are a good first step, but make sure they outline the desired behaviour, what will not be tolerated, and how you will go about enforcing this. You need to walk the talk – saying “we’ve not had any problems before” is not enough.

Lastly – and this is another thing I need to be better at – be aware that language matters, from how you describe your events through to how you address people. The term ‘guys’ is an excellent example – some consider it to be gender-neutral, others don’t. You could argue about semantics and context – or, you could find a more welcoming term that suits more people.

At the end of the day, being a great event host is hard work, and maintaining an awareness about peoples’ needs is hard work, but both really help to strengthen an event or community and make them welcoming places for wider audiences.

The Shoulders of Giants

I cannot say this enough: my perspective is constantly growing and evolving and improving, and there are many people to thank for this – in particular, my parents, and my dear friend Melina Chan. A lot of my recent growth has come from Twitter – here’s a selection of folk who’ve helped me (whether knowingly or not):

I don’t want to hold up these people as the token ‘diverse’ Twitter accounts I follow, because that’s not the case (and some have been friends for many years), but they have opened my eyes to a broader and better understanding of diversity, discrimination, and the world. Following all of these wise minds would be an excellent move.

All of what I’ve written above comes with the disclaimer that I don’t think I’m doing this topic justice, and many people have written far better things on this topic (the links I’ve shared are definitely worth exploring). If I can provide people with just a small step towards a much deeper understanding, then that’s a fantastic thing. Thanks for reading, this turned into a longer essay than I expected!

Last week RubyConf AU 2015 took place in Melbourne. A year prior to that, I’d put my hand up to run it… and over the course of twelve months, had assembled an excellent team, lined up speakers, venues, and a whole bunch of fun.

On Wednesday morning, it became real, as the workshops kicked off. By Saturday evening, it was finished with our after party at the Melbourne Lawn Bowls club in Flagstaff Gardens.

Going by the feedback we’ve received, I think it’s safe to say it was a success – at the very least, I’m thrilled with what we achieved.

But, of course, it would not have been possible without contributions from many, many people. I do want to list them here, even though it’s guaranteed I’ll forget someone and then feel terrible once I realise.

To our venues: Jasper, Zinc, and Deakin Edge. You provided fantastic spaces for our community to listen, learn, eat and socialise within. A special thank you to the AV team at Deakin Edge: Blake, Wes and Brad, plus our own video recorder Anthony, returning yet again to make sure our talks are captured for future generations.

To our stenographer Rebekah, who provided live captioning of our conference proceedings. She was not only extremely good at her job, but also responded to Keith and Josh’s banter in style.

To the weather gods – Melbourne’s traditionally fickle weather gave us four days of warm sunshine, which was perfect for showing off our fine city.

To the team behind our ticketing system Tito, who helped us with beta features and late night support.

To the Ruby Australia committee, who were super supportive when I first asked about running this conference, and provide essential and appreciated financial and organisational support. You play a massive part in the health and success of our community.

To our event manager Deborah Langley, and her colleague Sam. Engaging Deb to work on our event made our lives a great deal easier, and helped us to achieve great things. Plus, Deb and Sam helped the running of the conference and events purr along smoothly.

To our volunteers, lead by the inestimable Liam Esler and Mel Sherrin, and our stage manager Maxine Sherrin. You took excellent care of our attendees and speakers, kept things running to schedule, and deserve all of the credit for how calmly the conference ran.

To Amanda Neumann and Darcy Laycock, who worked with me to select presenters from our massive selection of proposals. We agonised over which talks made the cut (and there were many excellent choices that missed out), but I think our choices were great ones!

To our local Rubyists: Healesville guide Pete Yandell, and cycling leaders Gareth Townsend & Gus Gollings, who all ensured our attendees from near and far got to experience a different aspect of Melbourne beyond just the conference sessions.

To our fabulous illustrator Dougal MacPherson, who, with his 15 minute drawings hat on, drew a picture of every session (including workshops), which then became lovely gifts for our speakers.

To Tim Lucas, for his tireless work on our slick website, plus the corralling of our beautiful and popular t-shirts – which were designed by Magdalena Ksiezak (for the conference) and Carla Hackett (for the Rails Girls workshops).

To my fellow organisers: Melissa Kaulfuss, Matt Allen, and Sebastian von Conrad. Through our shared vision and skill-set we have crafted a special event, all contributing in different and most definitely valued ways. I really cannot thank you enough.

To our families, who recognised the commitment we had to give to make this real, and looked after us, loved and supported us. You’re the very definition of amazing.

To everyone else who helped in any way – I was inundated with offers of support and assistance over the past year, and while I didn’t have the opportunity to take everyone up on that, the offers themselves are greatly appreciated.

And finally, to everyone who attended the conference, and the broader Ruby community. It feels far more that we’ve done this with you than for you.

The Melbourne Ruby community has grown and evolved a fair bit in this past year, and I’m extremely proud of what it has become.

Mind you, I’ve always thought it was pretty special. I first started to attend the meets back when Rails was young and the community in Australia was pretty new, towards the end of 2005. The meets themselves started in January of that year – almost nine years ago! – and have continued regularly since, in many shapes, sizes and venues, under the guiding hands of many wise Rubyists.

Given I’ve been around so long, it’s a little surprising I’d not had a turn convening the meetings on a regular basis (though I’d certainly helped out when other organisers couldn’t be present). After the excellent, recent guidance of Dave Goodlad and Justin French, Mario Visic and Ivan Vanderbyl stepped up – and then Ivan made plans to move to the USA. I was recently inspired by discussions around growing and improving the community at the latest New Zealand Rails Camp, and so I offered to take Ivan’s place. (As it turns out, Ivan’s yet to switch sides of the Pacific Ocean. Soon, though!)

And so, since February, Mario and I have added our own touches to the regular events. Borrowing from both Sydney and Christchurch, we’ve added monthly hack nights – evenings where there’s no presentations, but people of all different experience levels bring along their laptops and get some coding done. If anyone gets stuck, there’s plenty of friendly and experienced developers around to help.

More recently, reInteractive have helped to bring InstallFests from Sydney to Melbourne. They are events to help beginners interested in Ruby and Rails get the tools they need installed on their machines and then go through the process of setting up a basic blog, with mentors on hand to help deal with any teething problems.

For the bulk of Melbourne Ruby community’s life, the meets have been announced through Google groups – first the Melbourne Ruby User Group, then in the broader Ruby or Rails Oceania group. It’d become a little more clear over the past couple of years that this wasn’t obvious to outsiders who were curious about Ruby – which prompted the detailing of meeting schedules on ruby.org.au – but there was still room for improvement. reInteractive’s assistance with the InstallFest events was linked to their support with setting up a group on Meetup.com – and almost overnight we’ve had a significant increase in newcomers.

Now, many of us Rubyists are quite opinionated, and I know some find Meetup inelegant and, well, noisy. I certainly don’t think it’s as good as it could be – but it’s the major player in the space, and it’s the site upon which many people go searching for communities like ours. The Google group does okay when it comes to discussions, but highlighting upcoming events (especially if you’re not a regular) is not its forte at all.

We’ve not abandoned the Google group, but now we announce events through both tools – and the change has been so dramatic that, as much as I’m wary of supporting big players in any space, I’d argue that you’d be stupid not to use Meetup. We’ve had so many new faces come along to our events – and while we still have a long way to go for equal gender representation (it’s still predominantly white males), it’s slowly improving.

With the new faces appearing, we held a Newbie Night as one of our presentation evenings (something that’s happened a couple of times before, but certainly not frequently enough). Mario and I were lucky enough to have Jeremy Tennant step up to run this and corral several speakers to provide short, introductory presentations on a variety of topics. (Perhaps this should become a yearly event!)

We’re also blessed to have an excellent array of sponsors – Envato, Inspire9, Zendesk, reInteractive and Lookahead Search have all provided a mixture of money, space and experienced minds. We wouldn’t be where we are now without you, your support is appreciated immensely.

Mario and I have also spent some time thinking a bit deeper about some of the longstanding issues with tech events, and tried to push things in a healthier direction:

At many of the last handful of meetings for this year, instead of pizza, we’ve had finger food from the ASRC Catering service, tacos from The Taco Guy, and a few pancakes as well. In each case we’ve ensured there’s vegetarian, gluten-free and lactose-free options. This trend shall certainly continue!

The drinks fridge at Inspire9 (our wonderful hosts for the past couple of years) now have plenty of soft drinks and sparkling mineral water alongside the alcoholic options – and we’ve been pretty good at making sure jugs of tap water are available too. There’s also tea and coffee, though we need to be better at highlighting this.

We’ve also adopted Ruby Australia’s Code of Conduct for all Melbourne Ruby events. This is to both recognise that our community provides value and opportunity to many, and to make it clear we want it to continue to be a safe and welcoming place, offline and online.

We’re by no means perfect, and I’m keen to help this community grow stronger and smarter over the coming year – but we’ve got some great foundations to build on. The Melbourne Ruby community – and indeed, the broader Australian Ruby community – is growing from strength to strength, and a lot of that is due to the vast array of leaders we have, whose shoulders we are standing on.

Alongside the regular city meets, there are Rails Camps twice a year, RailsGirls events becoming a regular appearance on the calendar, and the second RubyConf Australia is in Sydney this coming February. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2014 brings – thanks to all who’ve been part of the ride thus far!

This could be a story about a mystery. Or it could be an adventure. Or even a tale of learning and sharing. But ultimately, it really comes down to friendship and trust.

Ah, but where to start? Well, if we look back several years, it starts with my good friend James Healy, introducing me to a programming language called Ruby. That led me to the Australian Ruby community and the very first Rails Camp just outside Sydney, where I met Matt Allen. A year later, Matt Allen introduced me to Geoffrey Grosenbach at RailsConf in Portland, Oregon. A few months later, I found myself in Berlin, where through Geoffrey I met Paul Campbell of Dublin.

And then I met Paul again in Las Vegas, London, Amsterdam, Margate (for another Rails Camp), Berlin, and then finally in his home city of Dublin last year. I now consider myself lucky to call Paul a good friend, and have also had the pleasure of occasionally working with him.

Paul is a man with grand ideas, and one of those is an event he and fellow Dubliner Eamon Leonard concocted called Funconf. Every year as Paul put it together, I would consider travelling around the world to attend, but it just didn’t work out. This year, though, Paul told me the third Funconf would also be last – and so I became determined to be there for it. There were other events in in the same corner of the world I have been keen to see as well, thus it became something of a tour – four months travelling around Europe. Let’s be clear: from the beginning, Funconf was always one of the main reasons for the trip.

But what was I travelling over to be a part of? I knew that it was a conference – well, kind of: there would be some talks, close enough. And it’s a tech crowd that attends, so it’s work related at a stretch. But beyond that, Paul & Eamo weren’t talking.

When tickets were finally released, the website, gorgeous though it was, didn’t shed any light. All it asked was one question: “Do you trust us?”

My answer was always going to be yes.

Even after handing over a not inconsiderable amount of Euros to secure my place, few answers were forthcoming. Food and beds would be covered, but there was no clues as to where those beds would be, let alone what food we would be eating.

So I waited patiently, and began upon my travels. I attended conferences, I wandered through beautiful European cities, and I caught up with many friends along the way.

And finally, I arrived in Dublin at the end of August, still clueless as to what was to come. I wasn’t alone though – about a hundred others had come from across the globe. Most had been to previous editions of Funconf, but they were no more enlightened than I.

We met on Friday morning at a hotel in Dublin – some of us sporting a bit more facial hair than normal, after some tweets from Paul & Eamo – and found ourselves in a situation that felt very conference-like. There was a registration desk, hotel-catered breakfast, and a room with lecture-style seating and a PowerPoint presentation ready to go. This wasn’t what we expected! Werner Vogels, CTO of Amazon, was our morning’s speaker, and the talk was, well, just like any run of the mill conference.

We were being trolled. Or, as we’d say in Australia, Paul & Eamo were taking the piss.

Then, things started to get interesting. We grabbed our bags and were herded onto three big, black limousine party buses (a reference to Funconf 1) and with three shiny Deloreans (a reference to Funconf 2), we were escorted by local police to Heuston Train Station.

The mode of transport stakes were quickly raised – because we were then asked to board a train booked just for us, with the destination being Galway, on the other side of Ireland.

Of course, this was just one piece of the puzzle – what was to come once we arrived in Galway had yet to be revealed. That didn’t bother us much: we all revelled in the experience of the train trip, catching up with old friends and making new ones.

Buses – though nothing fancy this time – took us from the station to another hotel. Again, it was quickly clear that this wasn’t out main destination either as we were led into another function room. This time around, there were no PowerPoint slides, for we were the main attraction: an open mic and an invitation to talk for a few minutes on topics of our choosing.

While most got an opportunity to share – in some cases, more than once – others missed out: as the ideas flowed, Paul was taking a token or so people out of the room at regular intervals, and they weren’t returning. Slowly but surely, the numbers thinned until there were fifteen of us left. If I had been keeping an eye on Twitter, I would have known what was happening – but thankfully, I didn’t catch any of the spoilers. The penny dropped when we grabbed our bags and were led through the back streets of Galway to find helicopters waiting.

Helicopters!

And so, we arrived in grand style at our actual destination, Inis Mór of the Aran Islands (just off the west coast of Ireland).

All this, and it’s just the journey to get us where Funconf was taking place – the support act, if you like. Of course, with Paul & Eamo planning, the journey is as important as every other aspect of the event.

From there, it was a matter of collecting our amazingly crafted badges (thanks Kilian!) and bags (thanks Kilian’s mum!), settling into a bed & breakfast, and then wandering across the island in search of food, drink and friends.

Arriving on Inis Mór marked a change of pace: not only had we reached the event location (if an entire island counts as such), but part of the mystery of Funconf had been revealed. A large question mark still hovered, though: we had no idea what the next day would contain.

But we would have to wait until the morning for that. Friday evening was set aside for dinner and socialising – a fine way indeed to bring to a close such a uniquely wonderful day.

And once Saturday morning arrived, the rest of Funconf was revealed – well, to some extent. We had our venues: the local church, a nearby hall, a pub; and we had a schedule of when to be at each. The specifics of what would happen in each location was only divulged when required.

Those specifics, for the most part, were talks, and very good ones. None were technical, all were interesting, and they were generally stories or ideas. I shan’t recount each at length, as I would not do them justice (and, well, you had to be there), but my two favourites were Michael Lopp and Tom Preston-Werner (known as @rands and @mojombo, respectively). Fittingly, the focus for both was the topic of trust.

But beside the talks? Well, some of us visited the imposing cliff ruins of Dún Aonghasa, some of us got drenched riding bicycles in the rain (and some of us did both), but throughout there was a constant hum of socialising. While the talks were top notch, I can say with some certainty that the main reasons everyone came to Funconf were the people and adventure.

The evening brought with it a clever talk from Derek Sivers, a rocking performance by Kíla, and much partying – but all too soon, it was Sunday morning and time for us to board the ferry back to the mainland. A subdued ferry ride was followed by buses, and then another private train returning us to Dublin in time for the BBQ after-party.

And just like that, Funconf 3 was finished. A grand success indeed, and perhaps it’s for the best that there will not be another one – for I’ve no idea how Paul & Eamo could top that, plus it makes my experience all the more special, shared with such a superb group of fellow adventurers.

Paul, Eamon: thank you ever so much. I have no regrets for putting my trust in both of you, for it was a brilliantly crafted weekend.

I was about to write a new post about something technical, but that can wait for another day. Right now, I want to highlight to the world Inspire9, a coworking space here in Melbourne.

Now, Inspire9 is also a web development business, run by the talented and generous Nathan Sampimon. When the word spread a few years ago that he had an office for himself but others could drop by, I started visiting – as did others. Slowly the numbers grew, and instead of being just “Nathan’s office”, there was a growing sense of community and shared ownership, and it had become a much-loved coworking space.

As part of that growth, we had clearly outgrown our existing space – a measly 77 square metres – and so plans were hatched for something much larger. Halfway through last year, we moved into our new residence at 41 Stewart St, Richmond (right beside Richmond Station), with 370 square metres to work and play in (and that’ll eventually double to 720).

Our office is now a bustling hive of activity – there’s usually somewhere between 20 and 30 people in each day at any one point. Many of us have dedicated desks (it is something I happily pay for). That said, not everyone who works from Inspire9 are residents – anyone is welcome to drop by and use a desk, and it’s free.

It’s occurred to me to write about Inspire9 now because of what’s happened in the last 24 hours. Last night, someone stole Kealey’s iPhone while she was making sure an event in the office was running smoothly. Kealey is not only our events manager, but also a key part of the heart and soul of Inspire9 – so we were all pretty upset, and doubly so because it happened in our midst, in our home.

Not content with this situation, this morning Ned got a pledgie running to help fund a new iPhone for Kealey. Within two hours we had the funds, and by the end of today Kealey had a shiny new iPhone in her hands. The full story has been covered on the Inspire9 blog, and I particularly love the title, a very appropriate ‘Restoring Balance’.

While Inspire9 is a fantastic place to work, it’s the community that makes it stand out. I consider myself very lucky to be a part of it.

So, if you find yourself in Melbourne, please do visit. You’re welcome to pull up a chair and get some work done, or perhaps challenge someone to a game of pool. We also now host the Melbourne Ruby and Python meets every month (as well as plenty of other events), and we’re a friendly bunch – don’t be afraid to say hello!

This weekend, there’s going to be a Rails Camp. In October, there’s going to be a Rails Camp. Then in November, there’s going to be a Rails Camp. That in itself is pretty freaking cool. What’s even cooler is that they’re in Maine, England and Australia respectively.

Definition

If you’re not quite sure what Rails Camps are – they’re unconference style events, held away from cities, generally without internet, on a weekend from Friday to Monday. The venues are usually scout halls or similar, so the name is slightly inaccurate – most people don’t bring tents, but sleep in dorm rooms instead.

Also, they are events for Rubyists of all level of experience – and not just focused on Rails either. Anything related to Ruby and development in general is a welcome topic for discussion.

The weekends are made up of plenty of hacking, socialising, talks, and partying. Alcohol and guitar hero usually feature. A ton of fun ensues.

Rails Camp New England

A quick rundown in chronological order: first up, from the 17th to 20th of July, is Rails Camp New England. This will (as far as I know) be the first Rails Camp in North America. We’ll be up in the middle of Maine, at the MountainView House (a bit different from most Rails Camp venues) in Bryant Pond.

Unfortunately, if you want to come to this camp, we’re all sold out. Let me know anyway, just in case someone drops out (although it is late notice).

Rails Camp UK 2

Building on the success of last year’s first UK Rails Camp, a second one has been put together by Tom Crinson out in Margate, Kent.

If you’re anywhere in the UK, or even Europe, you really should be keeping the weekend of the 16th to 19th of October free. In fact, go book your spot right now.

Rails Camp Australia 6

Last on this list is the original Rails Camp, that started back in June 2007, run by the inimitable Ben Askins. We’re returning to Melbourne (the host of the second camp, in November 2007), but this time we’re down by the beach in Somers.

November 20th to 23rd are the dates for this, and going by the names of confirmed attendees, alongside what looks to be an fantastic venue, it’s going to rock just as much as the last five (and quite possibly even more). Feel like booking your place?

For all of these events, you should beg, borrow or steal to get your hands on a ticket. The energy, intelligence and passion of past camps has been amazing (which is why I do my best to spread the word), and they are a breath of fresh air compared to the staid and structured setup of RailsConf and most other technical conferences.

I’m pretty happy with this talk – but I realise I’m not that great a speaker. Imagine what I’d be like on a bad day ;)

Geoff didn’t catch the very start of the talk, which went something along the lines of “Hi, my name’s Pat, and I’m Australian [Cheers from Audience] I want to start of with some flattery, because I want to get on your good side.”

Prompted by an email from TED, I watched three videos on YouTube this evening – of residents of one country singing the anthems of another country. It’s an awesome idea, and the different approaches really add to it.

These short clips are inspired from an event that’s happening on the 10th of May, Pangea Day. I’d read mentions of it before (probably in TED emails, again), but I only had a browse of the site tonight, and I’m loving the idea:

"Pangea Day is a global event bringing the world together through film.

Why? In a world where people are often divided by borders, difference, and conflict, it’s easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that – to help people see themselves in others – through the power of film."

It sounds simple, but I think things like this are really effective. I’m only disappointed that I won’t be home in Melbourne that day – as there’s screenings at Federation Square and Cinema Nova. Nothing so public for Sydney that I’ve found so far…

(Your regular ruby-focused programming will return later in the week.)

"Our goal is to promote "destination friendly" tourism, by connecting travellers with organisations that are in some way helping to conserve local culture and heritage, support community projects benefitting local people or initiatives to lessen negative

About Freelancing Gods

In case you're wondering what the likely content here will be about (besides code), keep in mind that Pat is passionate about the internet, music, politics, comedy, bringing people together, and making a difference. And pancakes.